Tiger Soccer Team Makes It Four In A Row
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Nothing went right for South Bend St. Joseph's boys soccer team on Tuesday.
The start time. The injury. The premature ending. The 3-0 road loss to the Warsaw Tigers.
All of it no good.
The Tigers couldn't disagree more.
They won their fourth straight, this coming after an 0-5-1 start.
The offense clicked again. They scored three goals, giving them 18 in their last four games. This is a team that scored three goals its first five games.
The defense played stingy. The Tigers recorded their third shutout in their last four games. The one game that wasn't a shutout, they allowed one goal.
The Tigers were fortunate just to get this game in. St. Joe's bus pulled in at 5 p.m. for the junior varsity game.
St. Joe's coach Leroy Krempec came in believing the junior varsity game would be played at 5 and the varsity game would follow.
"We just found out when we got here the varsity game would be played at 5," he said. "We had it at 7 under the lights at a stadium. The officials had it as 5. Warsaw had it as 4:30."
Warsaw coach Corey Rose didn't know how times got mixed up.
"I had it as a 4:30 start time," he said. "I don't know who is to blame. I don't know where he got that start time, and it's not for me to say who's to blame."
St. Joe's still was given a warmup time, and the game started around eight minutes late.
Warsaw wasted little time going to work on the team ranked No. 20 in last week's poll. The Tigers took it to St. Joe's.
Less than three minutes into the game, Phil Hood scored a goal on a Kyle Smith assist to give Warsaw the 1-0 lead. Scoring a goal turned Hood into a pinball, because his teammates celebrated by bouncing him around in a crowd. The goal was Hood's third in two games.
With 10:38 left in the first half, Warsaw scored its second goal, the goal of goals.
Matt LaFountain scored the goal on a shot into the upper right corner of the net. But he couldn't have done it without the help of Hood and Gabe Koser, who each assisted.
The goal was like a 3-on-1 fastbreak in basketball. You could see it develop, and you knew the Tigers would score after Koser's headshot caromed the ball right to LaFountain, who stuck it in.
"That was a nice goal to watch," Rose said. "You could see it building from the back. The key to it was the composure by Matt LaFountain. He needed to be composed to pull that goal off, and he was."
Four minutes later, Warsaw came up with one of its biggest defensive stops. Goalkeeper Matt Brown dove to snare a St. Joe's shot that kept the game at 2-0 at halftime. St. Joe's bid to carry mometnum into the second half was thwarted.
St. Joe's attacked Brown the first minute of the second half. Again he met the challenge, delivering another big-time block on a goal attempt.
It only got worse for St. Joe's. Not only were good goal attempts blocked, they lost their goalkeeper with 31:09 left in the second half when he got kicked in the face. This opened a gash, and he left the rest of the game.
With 11:22 left, Warsaw's Richie Zentz scored the third and final goal against the backup goalkeeper.
With 10:45 left, the game was called by the officials around 6:45 p.m.
"We had difficulty seeing the ball," an official who refused to be identified said. "(South Bend) was late to the game, then a kid got a foot to the mouth that delayed the game for around 10 minutes."
For St. Joe's, it was the night to forget. And Krempec appeared to be able to do just that.
"It's OK," he said. "It's still just a game, that's all."
For Warsaw, it was a night to remember.
"St. Joe's is no slouch team," Rose said. "I would say tonight, overall, was an upset. St. Joe's was a top 20 team in the state until they dropped out the last poll.
"We came out strong. The first five losses, we came out slow and watched the other team score early. We couldn't recover. Today, we started quickly. It helps when you score a goal like that in the first three minutes. It makes a statement."
The Tigers (4-5-1) host a 5 p.m. Thursday match with Goshen.
WARSAW 3, SOUTH BEND ST. JOE'S 0
Goal shots - Warsaw 12, St. Joe's 12
Saves - Warsaw 9 (Matt Brown 8, Matt LaFountain 1), St. Joe's 6
Goals:
First half:
Phil Hood on Kyle Smith assist, 1-0 Warsaw, 37:22
Matt LaFountain on Hood and Gabe Koser assists, 2-0 Warsaw, 10:38
Second half: [[In-content Ad]]
Nothing went right for South Bend St. Joseph's boys soccer team on Tuesday.
The start time. The injury. The premature ending. The 3-0 road loss to the Warsaw Tigers.
All of it no good.
The Tigers couldn't disagree more.
They won their fourth straight, this coming after an 0-5-1 start.
The offense clicked again. They scored three goals, giving them 18 in their last four games. This is a team that scored three goals its first five games.
The defense played stingy. The Tigers recorded their third shutout in their last four games. The one game that wasn't a shutout, they allowed one goal.
The Tigers were fortunate just to get this game in. St. Joe's bus pulled in at 5 p.m. for the junior varsity game.
St. Joe's coach Leroy Krempec came in believing the junior varsity game would be played at 5 and the varsity game would follow.
"We just found out when we got here the varsity game would be played at 5," he said. "We had it at 7 under the lights at a stadium. The officials had it as 5. Warsaw had it as 4:30."
Warsaw coach Corey Rose didn't know how times got mixed up.
"I had it as a 4:30 start time," he said. "I don't know who is to blame. I don't know where he got that start time, and it's not for me to say who's to blame."
St. Joe's still was given a warmup time, and the game started around eight minutes late.
Warsaw wasted little time going to work on the team ranked No. 20 in last week's poll. The Tigers took it to St. Joe's.
Less than three minutes into the game, Phil Hood scored a goal on a Kyle Smith assist to give Warsaw the 1-0 lead. Scoring a goal turned Hood into a pinball, because his teammates celebrated by bouncing him around in a crowd. The goal was Hood's third in two games.
With 10:38 left in the first half, Warsaw scored its second goal, the goal of goals.
Matt LaFountain scored the goal on a shot into the upper right corner of the net. But he couldn't have done it without the help of Hood and Gabe Koser, who each assisted.
The goal was like a 3-on-1 fastbreak in basketball. You could see it develop, and you knew the Tigers would score after Koser's headshot caromed the ball right to LaFountain, who stuck it in.
"That was a nice goal to watch," Rose said. "You could see it building from the back. The key to it was the composure by Matt LaFountain. He needed to be composed to pull that goal off, and he was."
Four minutes later, Warsaw came up with one of its biggest defensive stops. Goalkeeper Matt Brown dove to snare a St. Joe's shot that kept the game at 2-0 at halftime. St. Joe's bid to carry mometnum into the second half was thwarted.
St. Joe's attacked Brown the first minute of the second half. Again he met the challenge, delivering another big-time block on a goal attempt.
It only got worse for St. Joe's. Not only were good goal attempts blocked, they lost their goalkeeper with 31:09 left in the second half when he got kicked in the face. This opened a gash, and he left the rest of the game.
With 11:22 left, Warsaw's Richie Zentz scored the third and final goal against the backup goalkeeper.
With 10:45 left, the game was called by the officials around 6:45 p.m.
"We had difficulty seeing the ball," an official who refused to be identified said. "(South Bend) was late to the game, then a kid got a foot to the mouth that delayed the game for around 10 minutes."
For St. Joe's, it was the night to forget. And Krempec appeared to be able to do just that.
"It's OK," he said. "It's still just a game, that's all."
For Warsaw, it was a night to remember.
"St. Joe's is no slouch team," Rose said. "I would say tonight, overall, was an upset. St. Joe's was a top 20 team in the state until they dropped out the last poll.
"We came out strong. The first five losses, we came out slow and watched the other team score early. We couldn't recover. Today, we started quickly. It helps when you score a goal like that in the first three minutes. It makes a statement."
The Tigers (4-5-1) host a 5 p.m. Thursday match with Goshen.
WARSAW 3, SOUTH BEND ST. JOE'S 0
Goal shots - Warsaw 12, St. Joe's 12
Saves - Warsaw 9 (Matt Brown 8, Matt LaFountain 1), St. Joe's 6
Goals:
First half:
Phil Hood on Kyle Smith assist, 1-0 Warsaw, 37:22
Matt LaFountain on Hood and Gabe Koser assists, 2-0 Warsaw, 10:38
Second half: [[In-content Ad]]